If you're a “Star Trek” fan, you'll recall that on the old show, senior officers — Kirk, Spock, Bones — survived ground missions on dangerous planets, while lowly ensigns — outfitted in sleek red uniforms — often met grisly deaths, so much grist for the mill.

For his eighth novel, 2012's “Redshirts,” John Scalzi took this premise and soared with it. Ensign Andrew Dahl has just been assigned to the Intrepid, flagship of the Universal Union since 2456. He begins to notice that on Away Missions, junior officers often don't return. When he begins to explore, he learns the Intrepid is not what people think it is.

“Redshirts” is one of five novels nomintated for a 2013 Hugo Award, science-fiction's most prestigious honor. The winner will be announced Sept. 1 during LoneStarCon 3, the 71st World Science Fiction Convention, in San Antonio Aug. 29 through Sept. 2. For more information, visit www.lonestarcon3.org/. Scalzi, 44, recently answered a few questions by email.

Q. How did 'Redshirts' come into your head? It's one of those wish-I'd-thought-of-it ideas.

A. I am a casual 'Star Trek' fan in that I'm a fan of the show, but I don't own a uniform or have taken up learning the Klingon language. But I certainly did see the concept of the 'red shirt' as something that hadn't been used to its full potential as a literary trope. There's was a ton of potential there.

Q. Author Cory Doctorow called 'Redshirts' a 'deeply sneaky book.' How is it sneaky?

A. You'd have to ask Cory for his actual reasoning, but if I had to guess I would say he probably means that while on the surface the book is funny and easy to read, if you look at the mechanics of the book and the themes the book explores — the questions of free will, agency and taking charge of one's own life — there's a lot that's going on there.

Q. Articles/reviews will say that the novel did well in sales — 'for a sci-fi novel.' There's always that qualification.

A. The gleefully obnoxious answer to this is that every time I am bothered by this sort of thing, I just go look at my royalty checks. And then I am happy again!

The slightly less obnoxious answer to this is: No, it doesn't bother me. 'Redshirts' sells well, period. People are enjoying the book, period. If people for whatever reason feel the need to qualify that success in order to process it in their own brain, what do I care?

Science fiction partisans often have a chip on their shoulder about the respectability (or lack thereof) of their pastime and genre, but in the end I think that's pointless. If you're an adult, and you enjoy a thing, and your enjoyment of it isn't hurting anyone else, then go do that thing. If someone else doesn't like it, the hell with 'em.

Q. What initially attracted you to science fiction?

A. As a reader, what initially attracted me was the covers — I was a kid and here were these awesome pictures of spaceships and aliens! How could you not love that? I burned my way though all the Heinlein juvies and never looked back.

As a writer, I wrote science fiction because I had read a ton of it and I was comfortable with it. Although when I sat down to write my first novel, I had to choose between SF and crime fiction, which I had also read a ton of growing up. I think I pretty much flipped a coin on it.

Q. Your blog Whatever is very popular. One of your entires, 'Being Poor,' created quite a sensation. Why do you suppose it touched a nerve?

A. I think it touched a nerve because it didn't argue how or why people were poor, it simply focused on what it was like to be poor — and made the point that poverty isn't just about not having money, it's also about what not having that money does to you as a person over time.

The major criticism I received was that I was well off, so I didn't know what I was talking about. The response there is that I grew up at times very poor, and everything on that list happened to me, to family or to someone I knew personally. It is still possible to escape poverty in the United States, but it is much easier not to, because the margins for escape for anyone in that situation are so thin.